Elon Musk Buys Twitter

[Jastall]

I've long been a critic of Twitter's inability to enforce rules equally. And impersonating another individual is already a violation of Twitter's rules, not to mention can be libelous. That has dick all to do with free speech. It isn't censoring your right to say something, it is censoring your ability to impersonate another person who is trying to misrepresent who you are.

I don't like Elon anymore than the next person, but I'm also not blinded by my dislike of him to see that the issues Twitter has require a nuanced approach and that there's limits on what can be deemed as acceptable conduct and speech on any social media platform or forum. I'm fine with people wanting to test the limits of where Elon draws the line, because it's clear where the line was drawn with the old administration.

Parody isn't even remotely close to being a case for libel, otherwise The Onion would long since have drowned in ruinous lawsuits. Impersonation requires far more than having a similar or the same username as a known figure and saying obviously stupid shit in their name. Twitter can kick whomever they please out of their platform of course but that doesn't mean parody is now a criminal act.


Myself I'm mostly amused that previous champions of free speech (not talking about you in particular) are now busy explaining to whoever will hear it why it's totally OK for Twitter to be if anything more restrictive of free speech than it was before. And I have an impression that the actual why of it strongly correlates with the fact that it's people they don't like who are getting banned this time.

[Edge-]

Myself I'm mostly amused that previous champions of free speech (not talking about you in particular) are now busy explaining to whoever will hear it why it's totally OK for Twitter to be if anything more restrictive of free speech than it was before. And I have an impression that the actual why of it strongly correlates with the fact that it's people they don't like who are getting banned this time.

https://twitter.com/lavern_spicer/st...15390563938304

Freeze Peach folks are having a very fun time. Also, depending on which tweet they're responding to they're either elated with him or he's the worst thing that ever happened.

He'll never make the Freeze Peach crowd happy, and he's been spending the past week driving off everyone else lol.

[Cthulhu 2020]

Parody isn't even remotely close to being a case for libel, otherwise The Onion would long since have drowned in ruinous lawsuits. Impersonation requires far more than having a similar or the same username as a known figure and saying obviously stupid shit in their name. Twitter can kick whomever they please out of their platform of course but that doesn't mean parody is now a criminal act.


Myself I'm mostly amused that previous champions of free speech (not talking about you in particular) are now busy explaining to whoever will hear it why it's totally OK for Twitter to be if anything more restrictive of free speech than it was before. And I have an impression that the actual why of it strongly correlates with the fact that it's people they don't like who are getting banned this time.

All the "free speech" clowns are perfectly okay with Elon censoring speech since he's endorsing Republicans.

It was never about free speech. It was them getting upset that violent Nazis who voted Republican were getting banned. And that made them mad.

[Twdft]

https://twitter.com/lavern_spicer/st...15390563938304

Freeze Peach folks are having a very fun time.

I particularly like the discussions if Musk is an African-American or not, lmao

[Draco-Onis]

He hasn't indicated he even has a basic understanding of Twitter as a business, tbh. He's acting like he's just a standard user that got control of the company, lol.

A basic user would understand the value of the blue check mark was that it was verified and trusted. By making it so that anyone can buy it for money you've basically turned it into a tool for scammers and bots rendering it worthless.

[Forogil]

Did anyone else notice that Tesla is down 5% today. It's as if the Twitter-meltdown is spreading.

[Cthulhu 2020]

https://twitter.com/drmistercody/sta...enhzWPMM_9HUTQ

People just hitting comedy out of the park, and Musk continues to enjoy backing white nationalists.

- - - Updated - - -

In another twist of "Elon Musk is a special snowflake who never cared about free speech", he's been unblocking himself from everyone, and making it so that he can't be blocked.

[Grinning Serpent]

https://twitter.com/lavern_spicer/st...15390563938304

Freeze Peach folks are having a very fun time. Also, depending on which tweet they're responding to they're either elated with him or he's the worst thing that ever happened.

He'll never make the Freeze Peach crowd happy, and he's been spending the past week driving off everyone else lol.

Has Twitter ever been a place where people who have functioning brains go? I think I made an account a super long time ago to tell Chris Avellone I liked his writing in... I think for Pillars of Eternity? Like, several years ago. I think it's the only tweet I've ever made and the only time I logged in.

It just seemed to me that the nature of the system was such that it would never be about intelligent, rational discourse but just memes and insults. The whole "white African-American" thing is obvious bait, the smart thing would be to just ignore it. But these people take time out of their day to argue about it with people who are literally just stirring the pot to see what pops up, it's not like anyone involved wants a conversation about it.

I'm just amazed that he's willing to spend so much money on a shitty social media service that was *already* in a tailspin before he came in and made sure the engines were dead and not just malfunctioning. Or, I would be amazed, but I've known Musk is a fucking moron for a while now. I do remember a time when I thought Tesla was really cool, though.

[Paranoid Android]

So saw this for awhile went to confirm and I don't know why, but here it is.



The Getty caption for this photo of a Nazi: "A German Wehrmacht soldier carries a cage of carrier pigeons used for relaying messages, on the western front during the German invasion of France, known as the Battle of France, in WWII, circa May 1940."

https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/n...?adppopup=true

The helmet makes it very disguisable of a German soldier. I was hesitant all day and looked quickly that possibly a WWI soldier. The helmet shape was close of the German Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany. Nope it's a nazi soldier.

So yeah, couldn't at least find one of ally with pigeons. Plenty of them on internet.

[Edge-]

So yeah, couldn't at least find one of ally with pigeons. Plenty of them on internet.

Literally could have just taken images of Laurence Fishburne from John Wick but no, he just happens to pick a Nazi.

Not calling him a Nazi, but at least personally when I'm looking to make jokes I generally don't go with Nazi imagery. Unless the point of the image is to mock Nazi's.

[Cthulhu 2020]

The rule seems pretty clear: 'Parody' has to be in the handle. H3h3 didn't put it in the handle, and therefore broke the rule.

https://twitter.com/williamlegate/st...60079548403712

Elon Musk is now suspending parody accounts that are completely compliant with Twitter's terms of service, including the rules he made up on a whim

Every social media platform has a "line" for free speech. For 4chan, it was loli hentai. For youtube and facebook, it was white nationalist violence. For Elon Musk, it was people making fun of him.

- - - Updated - - -

What's happening on Twitter is a lot easier to understand if you've ever had a younger sibling or friend who made up a game and then kept making up new rules every time they started losing.

[Draco-Onis]

https://twitter.com/williamlegate/st...60079548403712



Every social media platform has a "line" for free speech. For 4chan, it was loli hentai. For youtube and facebook, it was white nationalist violence. For Elon Musk, it was people making fun of him.

- - - Updated - - -

What's happening on Twitter is a lot easier to understand if you've ever had a younger sibling or friend who made up a game and then kept making up new rules every time they started losing.

You mean a narcissistic billionaire with a god complex has thin skin? I am shocked and surprised by this unexpected turn of events /s

[Edge-]

https://twitter.com/williamlegate/st...60079548403712

rofl that's like the fifth account with "Parody" clearly in the account name that got banned. Not just the profile description of their profile header image, but the actual name itself.

I'm beginning to think that Elon has somehow managed to make Twitter's inconsistent enforcement of their rules even worse, lol.

[Rennadrel]

Parody isn't even remotely close to being a case for libel, otherwise The Onion would long since have drowned in ruinous lawsuits. Impersonation requires far more than having a similar or the same username as a known figure and saying obviously stupid shit in their name. Twitter can kick whomever they please out of their platform of course but that doesn't mean parody is now a criminal act.


Myself I'm mostly amused that previous champions of free speech (not talking about you in particular) are now busy explaining to whoever will hear it why it's totally OK for Twitter to be if anything more restrictive of free speech than it was before. And I have an impression that the actual why of it strongly correlates with the fact that it's people they don't like who are getting banned this time.

The thing is that accounts like The Onion, The Beaverton and The Bee (whether you find them funny or not is up to you), which we know are parody, aren't trying to actually impersonate individuals. They aren't really parody, they are satire. Parody would be doing the opposite of what someone is known for doing while being funny about it. Neither Kathy Griffin nor Ethan Klein understand what it takes to be funny, nor did they even look at the rules of what constitutes parody of a person on Twitter before posting what they did. Maybe I just didn't find what they posted to be funny, though people roasting Kathy Griffin because people jokingly said she got banned for "not being funny" actually was mildly amusing, but they clearly didn't follow the rules that have existed for the last 5 years as far as impersonating another person before doing what they did.

As the saying goes, when you play stupid games, you win stupid prizes so I don't particularly feel sorry for both of them. That isn't to say that I have a problem with people wanting to parody other people on Twitter either, but when you do a poor job at parodying the company CEO, one shouldn't be surprised when the ban hammer comes out.

[Edge-]

Neither Kathy Griffin nor Ethan Klein understand what it takes to be funny, nor did they even look at the rules of what constitutes parody of a person on Twitter before posting what they did.

They were testing how much Free Speech Elon was allowing on Twitter. Which, apparently, isn't actually very much.

Maybe I just didn't find what they posted to be funny

It's not supposed to be a joke. They were testing the limits as described, and are making a point in getting banned. The whole point is that the blue checkmark system was literally created to solve the problem Elon just caused by making it something anyone can buy for $8/month.

but when you do a poor job at parodying the company CEO, one shouldn't be surprised when the ban hammer comes out.

I mean, the point people are making now is that even when they follow his guidance on what is acceptable to the T - including putting "parody" or (parody) in their username - they're still getting banned.

Because Elon doesn't actually have policies in place, his policy is, "Whatever I feel like at the current moment." which, for advertisers considering making major spends on the platform, is just about the last thing they want to hear.

So I'm gonna enjoy watching Twitter, which never made shit for money to begin with, lose out on advertiser dollars they can't replace with $8/month subs.

I mean hell, one of the supposed benefits of the sub is...better ads? Better ads are simply more targeted ads, which are more expensive ads. So congrats, you're paying to see more expensive advertisements? You're still the product, you'll just be paying for the privilege of being the product, kek.

[Cthulhu 2020]

they clearly didn't follow the rules that have existed for the last 5 years as far as impersonating another person before doing what they did.

Musk literally made up these impersonation rules AFTER he banned people. Before, the impersonation rules were aimed towards accounts actually trying to pass themselves off as someone else, since it was assumed that any reasonable person would be able to look at the @ handle and recognize that it was parody. The only thing that was banned was bots and scammers making accounts with identical photos, banners, names, similar @ handles, etc. You know, people who were ACTUALLY trying to pass themselves off as someone else.

The other side of this is, the blue check mark was a symbol where you could recognize that the person posting was who they said they were. Now that you can actually just buy it with no verification, it has lost that importance and ability to distinguish real posters from bad faith actors. That's a big reason WHY these people are impersonating Musk, to demonstrate how terrible the changes he is making are. That's the entire point of these parodies.

But even with these rules that were put in place literally 2 days ago, plenty of accounts that are very clearly labeled as parody are getting banned, too.

Musk is just a giant manchild. People who blocked him on twitter are now finding him to be unblocked.

There's no excuse for his shit.

[Jastall]

The thing is that accounts like The Onion, The Beaverton and The Bee (whether you find them funny or not is up to you), which we know are parody, aren't trying to actually impersonate individuals. They aren't really parody, they are satire. Parody would be doing the opposite of what someone is known for doing while being funny about it. Neither Kathy Griffin nor Ethan Klein understand what it takes to be funny, nor did they even look at the rules of what constitutes parody of a person on Twitter before posting what they did. Maybe I just didn't find what they posted to be funny, though people roasting Kathy Griffin because people jokingly said she got banned for "not being funny" actually was mildly amusing, but they clearly didn't follow the rules that have existed for the last 5 years as far as impersonating another person before doing what they did.

As the saying goes, when you play stupid games, you win stupid prizes so I don't particularly feel sorry for both of them. That isn't to say that I have a problem with people wanting to parody other people on Twitter either, but when you do a poor job at parodying the company CEO, one shouldn't be surprised when the ban hammer comes out.

No, parody is embodying something to make fun of it. Weird Al doesn't do the opposite of Ridin' when he makes White and Nerdy, he basically copied the original song while switching up the lyrics for fun's sake. The Onion deliberately writes their articles in ye olde dry AP style to give an air of authenticity to their complete nonsense. The brief they sent to SCOTUS not too long ago (dealing with a similar issue, mind) had all the trappings of a legal brief and really even is a decent one in and of itself, just with jokes sprinkled in that any reasonable person would recognize as jokes.

Satire goes over the top, parody traps you with a veneer of authenticity and familiarity but still obviously remains bullshit once you think about it for a second. Whenever some people are capable of thinking about those things and not just react immediately is mostly their own problem.

To say nothing of the fact that people with accounts clearly marked as parody (which misses the entire point of parody but whatever) were banned too. When the policy is supposed to be that you can have all the freezing peaches of the world if you mark yourself as parody. But Musk was all about making moderation fair and consistent, right? Shame it seems that's out the window when you have a crack at him tho.

[Draco-Onis]

So I'm gonna enjoy watching Twitter, which never made shit for money to begin with, lose out on advertiser dollars they can't replace with $8/month subs.

I mean hell, one of the supposed benefits of the sub is...better ads? Better ads are simply more targeted ads, which are more expensive ads. So congrats, you're paying to see more expensive advertisements? You're still the product, you'll just be paying for the privilege of being the product, kek.

Wow holy cow, I thought you paid and didn't get ads which most companies have enough brains to do but they are milking you on both ends.

[Edge-]

Wow holy cow, I thought you paid and didn't get ads which most companies have enough brains to do but they are milking you on both ends.

You're literally paying to be the product. And if they have the capability to make ads "twice as relevant", that increases the overall value of all advertising and there's literally no reason not to roll that system out to the whole platform as that makes Twitter more money per-ad.

So basically -

- Pay to continue to be the product, but at least your replies will be above all those bots! Especially all the ones simping in Elon's feeds shilling crypto-scams for the past handful of years.
- Hey, do you like YouTube? We're adding longer videos! Because everyone loves Twitter's video player and wants to watch longform videos there!
- Your stuff gets a visibility boost in search! Much wow!

All delivered with the attention to grammar and format of someone who is not a communications professional and probably written by Elon.

[PACOX]

How much does free speech cost? The low low price of $8/month as long as you don't disparage the king.